I love Gould's Bach interpretations. They are a bit romanticized, but I believe that modern interpretations are allowable. I only wish he didn't sing along when he plays.

Speaking of Bach interpretors, I recently heard Gyorgy Sebok's interpretation of the Bach-Busoni BWV 564 Adagio on Utube and was deeply moved, so much so that I am studying it now. I also heard the piece on the organ for which it was originally written, and much prefer the piano version. You could hear and appreciate the individual notes more readily.

Monica your comment about GGs humming taking you out of the music is interesting because it
corresponds with something I've been thinking for a few weeks. First let me say that Gould has
always been a hero of mine, ever since I first heard his Goldberg Variations (the second release)
20 years ago. I have his entire recorded musical ouput and most of the available videos of him.
It recently occured to me after watching "Exstasis" that Gould's musical life was not about his
listeners at all, but solely about himself and what he could find in the music, and if listeners liked it
then fine. I'm not sure he cared much about bringing listeners into the music. Here are some
examples to support my point.

1) His early retirement from the concert hall was (for one reason) because he was not able to
express what he felt should be expressed in the music. This denied the audiences of his day
of that amazing life altering event that a masterful live performance can be. In fact I don't
think he even understood that this could be the case for his audiences.
2) His recording of the Sinfonias is unbelievable marred by his choice of a defective piano.
3) His recordings of the English Suites sound disjointed (not musically but sonically) because
during the sessions he would experiment with various microphone placements and stereo
settings, even withing a single suite.
4) His insistance on the "baroque" tempos for the recordings of the Brahms Concerto No. 1
5) The humming is an obvious example.

I should say that the humming does not bother me at all but I get a little agitated when I
think of that beautiful execution of the Sinfonias marred by that d**n piano.

It's funny that you mention the Pollini Nocturnes, when I first heard that disc I had it cranked
in my car and when he breathed so loudly I thought one of my wheels had fallen off or something!
I actually put the brakes on and looked around for a car accident.

Well, I can certainly understand about the sound of a crappy piano. That surprises me that he did that. But the humming - I'll try to describe what I'm talking about. You're listening to some sensuous, beautiful piece, and all of a sudden there is a voice. It doesn't belong there, and now you're listening to that instead of the piano music. Breathing hard bothers me too, but sometimes I find myself doing it (not that loud and only when I'm alone) so I'll let that one slide.

That Pollini beathing thing is funny. And although I'm not crazy about his nocturnes, when I saw him live at Symphony Center, he played two of my favorites and they were great. At least I thought so - I'm sure I stopped breathing at the time because i was so mesmermized. So in a round-about way, that is what you're talking about when you say that an audience can have a life-altering experience, right?

Gould sure was a strange man.

_________________"Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties." ~ Frederic Chopin

They are a bit romanticized, but I believe that modern interpretations are allowable. I only wish he didn't sing along when he plays.

I agree with you. And also about the singing thing. Pollini does that on a nocturne CD I have. It takes me 'out' of the music, somehow. (not sure that makes sense)

Speaking of Pollini and singing...

I have a CD of Pollini playing Debussy's preludes... and he sang through them all.

When he was doing that one about the wind (can't remember the name, can't be bothered to look it up), I actually got scared at one point, because it was 3:00AM, I was listening on my Ipod, and I thought that somebody had broken into my room. He started gasping for air, and it reeeeeally freaked me out...

And speaking of Gould, I also have a video of him singing along with the Webern variations (I think they're opus 27, or something like that. They're in the 20's, I know that much.)

I didn't think you could sing in 12 tone... apparentley I've been proven wrong...

_________________"This is death! This is death as this emanation of the female which leads to unification ... death and love ... this is the abyss." This is not music", said [Sabaneev] to him, "this is something else..." - "This is the Mysterium," he said softly.

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